A New Motivation: Chapter 15

Sorry all for the lack of updates the past few days! Fire and Wind will update later tonight or early tomorrow morning! For now, please enjoy the newest chapter in A New Motivation!

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Just like everything else in the underworld, Rias’s summer home was incredibly nice and definitely somewhere that I could see myself wanting to visit just about every chance I got. We arrived in the early morning, basically waking up and teleporting straight here so that we didn’t waste a single moment of our limited training time.

After choosing our rooms and putting our things away, we conveyed outside in the large, open lawn. Our peerage was gathered on one side of the field, while Grayfia was standing across from us, hands crossed in front of her lap as she waited. Waited for what? Well…

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked, eying the maid warily, “She’s Sirzech’s Queen. There’s no way we’re going to be able to do anything to her.”

“That’s oddly cynical for you, Nero.” Rias said, giving me an amused glance, “This was my brother’s idea. He wants to see where we stand when it comes to fighting as a team. Would you rather fight him instead?”


I paled, looking at the Super Devil who was watching us with an amused smile. He met my eyes and winked, and that was more than enough for me, “No thanks!” I squeaked, looking away from him, “Grayfia’s fine! I’d rather be frozen than disintegrated.”

“Fufufu, you worry too much Nero.” Akeno said, “She isn’t going to fight us with her full strength, that would defeat the purpose entirely. I’m sure we’ll be fine as long as we do our best.”


I nodded, still a bit unsure about this. I hadn’t fought anyone outside of the peerage yet, and my first actual opponent was going to be an Ultimate Class Devil who earned herself the title of Strongest Queen and Queen of Annihilation? I feel like I was missing a few steps here.

Still, Akeno was right. As long as I did my best and fought with all I had, everything would be fine. It wasn’t like she was trying to kill us, after all. If she was… well she wasn’t and lets just leave it at that.

“Is everyone ready?” From the sidelines, Sirzechs supervised this spar, wanting to see what his little sister’s peerage was made of and just how much work they needed. We all nodded, tensing as we prepared ourselves for combat while Grafiya simply nodded, utterly unconcerned.

Sirzechs looked at us all and smiled, before raising his hand in the air like a flag, “Then when you are ready, you may… BEGIN!”

He swiped his hand down and things got started immediately. Wings erupted from Rias and Akeno’s backs as the two of them flew up high, getting an aerial advantage so they could play to their strengths. Akeno’s priestess outfit appeared on her body in a flash of light, and she shivered in anticipation of the coming battle.

Down below, a burning sword appeared in Kiba’s hand while Koneko merely cracked her knuckles. I summoned Red Queen and Blue Rose, gripping the revolver in my demonic hand as I rested the massive sword on my shoulder. Grayfia wasn’t a Stray Devil, but I doubted there was any way that I would accidentally hurt her with the weapon anyhow. And besides, we weren’t supposed to hold back here.

In the face of our combined might, Grayfia didn't even bat an eyelash, as was expected by someone who had earned the title of Strongest Queen.

Flying higher into the air, our leader shoved her hand forward, gesturing boldly, “Lets give them a good show. Let's go, everyone! Don't hold anything back!”

“Fufufu, this will be an interesting battle! We'll show her what we're made of!” Akeno slung a hand forward and a bolt of yellow lighting soared from her fingertips straight towards Grafiya. The maid held a single hand up and a mirror of ice appeared in her palm, spinning like a disk and sending the arcs in random directions as they struck it.

Akeno pouted as she saw her attack had no effect, and Rias shook her head, “You'll have to try harder, Akeno! This isn't the time to be playing around!”

Akeno's face instantly became serious and she nodded as Rias unleashed her own spell, sending numerous balls of destructive power raining down towards Grafiya who jumped out of the way to avoid her attack.

Down below, we weren't idle either. Koneko was the first one to move, charging straight at Grayfia just as boldly as she would a stray devil as the woman deflected Akeno's attack. She cocked a fist back, preparing to display the strength that her piece bestowed her as Kiba and I followed right behind her to back her up.

Grafiya didn't move as the pint-sized Nekoshou approached her, remaining as composed as always as Koneko closed the distance between them and threw her fist forward into the woman's face.

It was like the split-second of black between the frames of a movie as it switches to a new scene. One moment Grayfia was standing there, ready and waiting to receive Koneko's fist, and the next she was in a completely different place and Koneko was the one who was reeling like she had gotten punched in the face.

Another blink, and suddenly the Nekoshou was flying past Kiba and I, struck by an unseen force. We skidded to a halt as Koneko struck the ground a ways behind us, cratering the ground and going limp.

“What!?” I shouted, shocked that the resilient Rook had been taken out so easily.

“Focus Nero!” Kiba shouted, raising his sword just in time as Grafiya suddenly appeared in front of him, clashing against his flaming blade with one made of the purest ice. His arms shook for a moment against the Queen's superior strength, before faltering almost immediately as she broke through his guard.

As he was sent reeling back, she moved to capitalize on his unbalanced state but I was there, swinging Red Queen into the space his head once was. It slammed into Grayfia's thinner blade and pushed it away as I took Kiba's place, and I swung it out in a wide arc, making the woman jump backwards to avoid my strike.

“Keep her occupied you two! Akeno, give them support!”” Rias shouted as she flew down to check on Koneko who was already beginning to stir.

“Right!” Akeno responded, taking this much more seriously now. Rising higher in the air, electricity began to arc between her limbs once more and she let it loose with a shout, delivering a veritable storm’s worth of lightning to the woman down below.

The majority of it slammed into the ground, kicking up dust and rocks, but a few stray bands almost hit Grafiya, forcing the woman to keep dodging. As she moved, I followed after Grafiya, keeping the pressure on her as I brandished Blue Rose, sending two bullets spinning after her with a loud bang.

Turning to face me, Grafiya's arm blurred as she swiped her sword, the halves of both bullets slammed into the ground on either side of her, ruffling her hair and kicking up dust.

Narrowing my eyes as I reached her, I revved Red Queen as I jumped up in the air. Fire trailed behind my sword, propelling it forward faster and harder than I could manage on my own, and it became a blur in my hand as I brought it down upon the woman's blade.

Grafiya's only response was a raised eyebrow as she held up her own blade and stopped my attack dead in its tracks. I wasn't discouraged, and immediately disengaged, falling back a bit to let Kiba take my place as I knew the Knight was right behind me.

As we fought the woman, switching on and off as the battle demanded, my earlier worries proved to be well founded.

For one, fighting Grayfia was nothing like fighting Kiba. Kiba was better than me, sure, but the gap there wasn't too large, and more than once we found ourselves evenly matched when we sparred.

Grafiya wasn't like that. The difference in our power and skill was so incredibly vast that even when holding back, the woman treated me like a child swinging a stick. Red Queen sang every time it slammed against Grayfia’s weapon, and yet even with all of my strength and fighting instinct, I was being toyed with.

Even with Kiba alongside me, there wasn't a single thing we could do against her. Her defence was completely solid and when she actually started fighting back, that's when everything went to shit.

As she deflected Kiba's sword, Grafiya swung her unoccupied arm towards me like she was about to slice me with a sword that wasn't there. I hesitated, and that was a mistake. In a flash of light, her empty hand was no longer empty, and I just barely managed to get Red Queen in front of me to block the newly created blade.

The force behind Grafiya’s swing broke through my guard and slammed my sword into the dirt, and as I tried to raise it back up into a ready position, I looked forward and was met with a spinning magic circle in front of my face.

‘Oh no.’

That was the only thought that had time to run through my mind before I was suddenly blasted away by a torrent of freezing wind. I screamed as frost slid over my body, slicing into my skin just deep enough to hurt but not truly damage me.

Red Queen flew out of my hands as the force behind the spell sent me hurtling away like I had been hit by a car going eighty kilometers an hour, and I just barely managed to hang on to my revolver as I crashed into the ground, curling up and trying to protect my head as I tumbled against the packed dirt and grass.

“Nero!” Akeno yelled as she saw me get blasted away, before her eyes narrowed and the electric aura around her grew more wild, “Oh, you've done it now!” She said dangerously as she raised both her hands, “Take this!”

Thunder boomed and my hair stood on end as the priestess threw her hands towards Grafiya who was engaged with Kiba, fending off the Knight's assault as he attacked with a second sword created by his gear.

Blinding yellow lightning soared towards Grafiya's back, and Kiba disengaged as it grew closer, abandoning both of his swords as he jumped away from the impending impact.

A pillar of lightning slammed into the ground just as he got out of range, erupting outwards as grasping tendrils of electricity scorched the earth around it. The Strongest Queen disappeared under the torrent of lightning and Akeno grit her teeth, pumping more magic into the attack to keep the woman pinned down so that her teammates would have time to recover.

A short distance away, I groaned as I came back to my senses, holding my head which had slammed into the ground in my uncontrolled tumble. I opened my eyes to find Rias hovering over me with a worried expression.

“Are you alright, Nero?” She asked as I slowly sat up. I shook my head, clearing the stars in my vision as she helped me to my feet.

“Yeah, I think I'm good.” I said, rubbing my head, “She's super strong.”

Rias laughed, “Well she's not my brother's Queen for nothing.”

“True.” I said, watching as Akeno and Kiba kept the woman busy. A draft made me look down at myself, and I froze as I realized that my shirt had been torn to pieces from Grafiya's spell. What had once been a full garment had been reduced to scraps of fabric hanging off of my body by pure luck. Even my bra hadn't survived.

My eye twitched as I looked at my exposed breasts, “Right. Tissue paper clothes. Forgot about that.”

“You'll get used to it. Most human clothes don't survive first contact with strong magic.” Rias said and I sighed, not bothering to cover up. There wouldn’t be any point, anyway.

“I guess I'll have to start shopping in the Underworld then. And just when I filled my closet, too.” I looked down at my hand, grimacing, “I lost my sword. Did you see where it went?”

“No, I was busy helping Koneko.” I looked up to find that the Nekoshou had rejoined the fight, working in conjunction with Kiba as the two of them kept Grafiya on the back foot. Or at least that was what she wanted us to think as she was clearly still holding back for our sake.

Though not nearly enough to make a difference. Rias grimaced as the woman summoned a magic circle above her head, absorbing Akeno's lightning before sending it back at the girl with twice as much force. Akeno swayed out of the way, yelping as her own lightning singed her arm, “Hey! That's not nice!”

Akeno wasn't the only one targeted however, and Kiba shouted in pain as lightning slammed into his body, singing his clothes and sending him flying backwards. He recovered faster than I did, swiftly getting on one knee as he rose, but it was clear that he was stunned from the attack and would take a moment to recover.

As Grafiya lowered her arm, a sound from behind her got her attention, and she turned around to find Koneko lifting a boulder several times larger than herself above her head. Kiba was still recovering from his sudden lightning injection, and Koneko hurled the impromptu projectile at Grafiya with a grunt, tossing hundreds of pounds of stone like it weighed a fraction of that.

Undeterred, Grafiya raised a hand and a wall of ice rose from the ground in front of her. The rock slammed into it, cracking the frozen barricade but not quite breaking through it. Koneko saw this and frowned, before breaking into a sprint as she ran towards the Queen hiding behind her frozen barrier.

“HAAA!” With an impassioned shout, the Nekoshou jumped up and slammed her fist into the wall, finishing the job that her boulder had started as the ice crumbled around her strike.

Grafiya's eyebrow raised as the Rook appeared through the explosion of shrapnel, glaring at her with slitted yellow eyes, "Interesting."

Koneko raised a leg high, preparing to deliver a devastating axe kick upon the woman. As she brought it down, Grafiya reached out and grabbed her ankle in a firm grip, stopping her attack in its tracks and leaving her dangling in the air by her leg.

Shocked yellow eyes met cool silver as all of Koneko's momentum was stopped dead, before Grafiya turned and raised the girl above her head like she weighed absolutely nothing, and slammed her into the ground hard enough to make an imprint with her body.

“Guh!” Spit emerged from Koneko's mouth as she was slammed into the earth hard enough to completely negate the innate resilience granted to her by her Evil Piece. She jerked her leg, trying to get out of Grafiya's grasp, but the woman held on fast, lifting the Nekoshou out of the dirt before slamming her into it once again.

If the first meeting with the ground hurt, then the second was completely debilitating. Koneko's face was the purest expression of pain, and she was completely stunned and unable to react as Grafiya lifted her up once more and tossed her towards Rias and I.

Rias flew up and caught the Rook, bringing her safely back to earth. I ran over to the two as Rias landed with Koneko in her arms, and grimaced at the sight of her.

Koneko had passed out in her short travel in our direction. Her eyes were closed and her body was limp, indicating that she had long since passed into the land of dreams. Which was probably for the best because she looked awful. Her clothes were in tatters from repeated impacts with the ground and she was covered in bruises. Even if she was still up, I doubted she'd be able to fight as well as before.

“Isn't she taking this a bit too seriously?” I asked as Rias gently laid the girl on the ground.

“Grafiya knows how to gauge her strength to her opponents. Koneko's hurt, but she's had worse than this and been completely fine. It was the shock that knocked her out.” Rias stood up, looking towards where the woman was still fighting Kiba and Akeno, and narrowed her eyes.

“Still, I'm not going to let her get away with hurting one of my cute little servants.” Rias said dangerously, and I gulped as a fiery red aura began to leak from her body, lifting her hair upwards as it radiated outwards.

She was right though, just because this was practice didn't mean we could hold ourselves back. I took a deep breath and held out my demonic hand, manifesting Yamato in my grip in a flash of blue light. The sword was already unsheathed, radiating danger as the blade gleamed in the light, and I cocked Blue Rose as I brandished both weapons.

“I'll back up Kiba. Can you and Akeno come up with something strong enough to bring her down?”

“No.” Rias said immediately, “But we might be able to manage something that could hurt her enough to end the spar.”

“That'll work. This isn't about winning anyway, right?” I concentrated and my wings emerged from my back, “I have an idea for how to keep her from dodging, so you two charge up and we'll take care of keeping her occupied, alright? With any luck, we can end this before anyone else gets hurt.”

Rias gave me a bemused look, “Well look at you, little miss leader. When did you decide to take charge?”

I blushed as I realized how I sounded, “Sorry, was I out of line? I just thought-”

“It's fine, Nero.” Rias chuckled, “It's a good plan. We just have to hope it works.”

“They say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, you know?”

“True, but that doesn't mean you can just charge in without one.” Rias said as she rose into the air once more, "Go back up Kiba, I'll work with Akeno.”

“Got it.”

We went our separate ways, with Rias flying up towards Akeno to explain the plan while I flew towards Kiba who was quickly being pushed back by quick strikes from Grafiya. Every time she struck out at him, he defended himself with one of his swords which immediately shattered the moment they came into contact with Grafiya's. Sword Birth was the only reason he hadn't been sliced to ribbons yet, as every time he made a new sword it was quickly destroyed by the woman's own.

‘Well let's see how she likes it then!’ I narrowed my eyes as I soared towards the pair, clenching Yamato in my human hand. The blade sang in my grip, latent power silently begging to be used as I reached the pair and swung at the woman's unprotected back.

Just as I expected, Grafiya’s finely honed instincts clued her into my sneak attack and she turned around to parry my blade with her own. Silver eyes widened as Yamato bit into her weapon like it was made of wood instead of impossibly hard ice and began to push its way forward as I put my weight on it.

Grafiya jumped backwards, abandoning her weapon as my own sliced it in half, and ducked to dodge my follow-up swipe as she continued to retreat. I landed beside Kiba, resting Yamato on my shoulder as I pointed Blue Rose at the woman who eyed me from across the field.

“How are you holding up, Kiba?” I asked as I kept an eye on the woman. She wasn't moving, but she already had another sword in her hand, created in the snapshot between blinks.

“Better, now that you're here.” Kiba said with a strained smile. He wasn't paying any attention to my wardrobe malfunction, not that I ever thought he would. Kiba was nice like that. “She's certainly living up to everything I've heard about her. How's Koneko?”

“Passed out.” I said, “I've got a plan, sort of. We need to keep her occupied for a little bit as Rias and Akeno charge up. Do you think you can do that?”

Kiba gave me a sardonic grin as he created two curved swords with ornate engravings etched into their sides “I'll have to try, won't I? How long do we have to hold her off?”

“As long as it takes.” I said, tensing as Grafiya took a step forward, “Ready?”

“As I'll ever be.”

“Then do me a favor and set the stage. I'll keep her busy.”

Kiba got my meaning and nodded, before his eyes narrowed in concentration. Brandishing Yamato, I ran towards Grafiya shooting my revolver ahead of me as I approached. Instead of cutting my bullets in half, this time Grafiya ducked underneath them as she ran towards me, meeting my charge half way.

Our swords clashed and Yamato once more bit into her weapon with ease. Knowing how sharp the katana was, Grafiya didn't let the clash last long and immediately backed away, repairing her sword with a quick burst of magic before re-engaging.

Knowing that it wouldn't do me any good in such close range, I dismissed Blue Rose and manifested my Devil Bringer, using the spectral hand to swipe at Grafiya as I pushed her sword away. She danced away, twisted around the reaching claws before holding a hand out and sending a blast of icy wind towards me. I reeled my Devil Bringer towards me, using it to block the majority of the wind so I wasn't sent flying away like last time.

“I'm ready, Nero!” Kiba shouted behind me, and I immediately jumped away from Grafiya, using my Devil Bringer to keep her from following after me as I flew high into the air.

“Sword Birth!” Kiba shouted as magic exploded out of his body. The ground glowed brightly with a magic sigil before dozens of swords burst upwards, climbing into the sky as their sharpened points sought purchase in Grafiya soft flesh.

The woman cottoned onto what was going on the moment she felt the magic and tried to jump away, but I was above her, pushing her back down with a combination of Yamato and my Devil Bringer.

“Get back down there!” I shouted, gritting my teeth as I strained against her sword with all of my might. Her unconcerned demeanor turned out to be my greatest boon, as thanks to her lack of wings she had no way to gain leverage in the air. If she had brought them out, she would have been able to punch back against me much more effectively but as it stood, I actually managed to push her back down, forcing her to fall towards the bed of swords laying in wait.

Quick thinking on her part had her landing on a circle of ice instead of the sharp swords below. I flew back upwards, coming to a stop beside Rias and Akeno who were gathering so much power that I could feel the pressure on my skin.

“Hit her now, this is our chance!” I shouted and they nodded as their magic reached its peak.

They unleashed their magic. A frightening combination of Akeno's lightning and Rias's Power of Destruction bathed the entire clearing in light so bright that I had to squint to see anything. Kiba's swords and even the ground underneath them were completely annihilated underneath the torrent of magical energy.

The Knight himself flew up to join us, panting slightly as we stared down at the torrent of magic that was wreaking havoc on Rias's lawn.

“We got her, right?” I asked, watching as the attack slowly died down.

“I think so.” Kiba nodded tieredly, “I didn't see her move out of the way before your attack hit. At the very least, you clipped her with it.”

“I guess we'll just have to see.” Rias said, “Get ready guys. This might not be over.”

We watched with bated breath as the smoke slowly cleared. And as it did so and the area that we had attacked was revealed, we all gaped at what we saw.

Grafiya didn't have a single scratch on her. Heck, even the circle of ice that she was standing on was completely intact. This was thanks to the pulsing red barrier of magical energy that was protecting her, keeping her safe even from the combined attack from the King and Queen.

The dome slowly came down, dispersing into thin air like it wasn't even there. Grafiya looked around at the large crater surrounding her, a slightly surprised look on her face.

“That was a very well executed attack. Well done, all of you.” She congratulated us as we stared at her in shock and horror.

Grafiya suddenly blurred in my vision, blinking out of existence in a single instant and I froze as I was suddenly left into silver eyes only an inch away as the woman appeared directly in front of me.

“As a reward, I'll get a bit serious.” She said, her polite tone promising pain for all of us.

~~~

It didn't take long for things to devolve from there. Unfortunately, I didn't witness most of it first hand as I was taken out of the fight almost immediately after Grafiya started trying, but they didn't last much longer anyway so I didn’t miss that much.

Rias got taken out after me, and then Akeno not long after her. Koneko rejoined the fight for a bit after she woke up, but by that point it was only her and Kiba and when they fought valiantly, it wasn't even close to enough.

By the end of it all, we were covered in bruises, dead tired, and all of us were wearing less clothes than we started with. Thanks echhi anime stereotypes.

A few minutes and a change of clothes later, everyone was gathered in the house once again. I grimaced as I shifted on the couch, unable to originate exactly where the pain was coming from with the innumerable bruises covering my body.

“We really were no match for you, Grafiya.” Rias said, rubbing her cheek where a large bruise was starting to form. Her eyes were downcast and it was clear to everyone that she had expected them to do a lot better than they had.

“That's to be expected, Rias. She is your brother's Queen, after all.” Akeno said, grimacing slightly, “Though I will admit, I thought we'd do a little better than that. We barely put up a fight.”

“You all did as well as could be expected, given the circumstances.” Sirzechs consoled us, “This spar wasn't about winning, it was about testing your abilities and more importantly, your teamwork. For a peerage as green as this one, you all performed quite admirably.”

His words lifted the mood somewhat. But it was immediately brought crashing down by Grayfia who wasn't nearly as compassionate as her husband.

“But you all still have flaws. Many that even a peerage as new as yours should have gotten rid of by now.” The woman said, making us deflate. She saw this and sighed, “That being said, you aren't the worst I've seen. It is good that we learned this here so that we know what you need to work on. The entire purpose of this trip is training, after all.”

“That's true. Don't be discouraged just because you were beaten in a friendly spar. It's always better to lose against an ally in a friendly spar than an enemy in a life or death battle.” Sirzechs said, and we all felt a little bit better for it.

Standing, Rias clapped her hands, “Alright, everyone. Since we're all tired and probably in no shape to be doing anything but lay around, we'll be taking a small break before we move on to our training. With the help of Nii-sama, I've come up with training regimens for each of us.”

“I'll help adjust some of them for what we've learned here today, but they should mostly stay the same.” Sirzechs added on, “Grafiya will be here occasionally to assist when her duties allow,, as well as a few people who I personally know who agreed to help as a favor.”

Training from people Sirzechs himself knew? That sounded promising. All of us perked up at his words, including myself, and he smiled as he saw that.

“Training alone is detrimental to your skills after a certain point as you reinforce bad habits, and even training with someone on your own can do the same thing. Some friends of mine have agreed to be your instructors for a short time to help you all get stronger.”

“Thank you, Nii-sama.” Rias bowed to her brother thankfully before turning to the rest of us, “They'll be helping us train individually and together so that we can focus on the skills that we're best at. With their help, we'll get better much faster than we would alone.”

She rubbed her shoulder, grimacing, “But for now, why don't you guys find your rooms and get some rest? We'll meet back here in a couple hours once Nii-sama’s help arrives and we've all recovered a bit.”

Her words received no arguments by any of us as we stood and dispersed. I groaned as I got back on my feet, cracking my back to try and get rid of the ache that resided there thanks to my impromptu meeting with the ground earlier.

A hand on my shoulder made me look over, and I found Akeno smiling at me, her petty face marred by a smudge of dirt and a growing bruise, “Does your back hurt, Nero?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I think I hit a rock or something when I hit the ground because there's an ache down there that just won't go away.”

Akeno's smile grew and her hand lowered a bit, moving to my back as she began rubbing it on soft circles, “Well I happen to know a great massage technique that could help with that. If you'd like, I can join you in your room later and rub all of that stress right out.”

Blushing slightly at her phrasing, I grinned right back, “Sure, that'd be nice. Later though. I wanna get a nap in before we get to training.”

“I'll be waiting~” Akeno's hand left my back, trailing along my arm as she disappeared down the hall towards her room. I watched her go, my face hot from the whole interaction.

As much as I wanted to join her right now and/or go take a nap as I said I would, I still needed to do something real quick. As she disappeared, I walked up to Rise who was talking softly with her brother and his wife, “Hey Rias, I've been thinking and I think I might have an idea on how to make our training a little more effective.”

They all turned towards me, curiosity painted on their faces, “Really, Nero? What is it?”

“Well, Kiba can make swords that do practically anything, right? Well why don't we have him make swords to help us with training?” I explained my idea, “He could make small swords that we can carry with us that could do a bunch of stuff like increase gravity in a localized area to make it harder to walk or even just drain our energy to make it harder to do anything. It could be good resistance training.”

Sirzechs had an intrigued expression on his face, "That's a very interesting idea, Nero.”

“I'll say! How have I never thought of it before?” Rias said, giving me a surprise look, “I mean, resistance training is anime 101!”

“I was surprised too, but I just figured that it wasn't possible. I just thought I'd bring it up.” I shrugged.

“Oh it's definitely possible, which is why I'm mad that I didn't think of it.” Rias said with an irritated look on her face. She rubbed her face, “I'll talk to Kiba about getting some swords for training. But tomorrow. That move earlier took a lot out of him, I could tell.”

I nodded, Kiba did seem more tired than all of us during our meeting. I guess using Sword Birth like that without a Transfer from Issei wasn't exactly easy at this point in his training, “Alright, sounds good. I'm gonna go take a nap or something so feel free to come grab me when it's time to meet our trainers.”

“Sleep well, Nero.”

My posture was slouched and my steps were heavy as I slowly made my way towards my room. That fight had taken a lot out of me, and I was in dire need of some rest before I even considered the idea of training again.

I could already tell this trip was going to be fun.